Digital video recorders (DVRs) and personal video recorders (PVRs) allow viewers to record video in a digital format to a disk drive or other type of storage medium for later playback. DVRs are often incorporated into set-top boxes for satellite and cable television services. A television program stored on a set-top box allows a viewer to perform time shifting functions, and may additionally allow a viewer to skip over commercial breaks and other portions of the recording that the viewer does not desire to watch. However, the user performs this function manually, for example, using a fast forward button of a remote control associated with the DVR. This manual fast forwarding is an inconvenience for the user. Further, manual fast forwarding by a user often leads to inaccurate results, because the user may fast forward past portions of the recording they desire to watch, or may resume playback during the portion of the recording that they want to skip over.
In some instances, the user desires to watch the television program initially without the interruption of commercial breaks, but subsequent to watching the television program, desires to view the commercials that were previously skipped. In this case, the user must not only manually fast forward over the commercial breaks during the initial viewing of the television program, but must then also rewind after the television program is completed to view the commercials. The prior art thus fails to solve this problem in a manner that is easy and convenient for the user.